AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You okay there, princess?” Dante asks softly, coming up next to me.
“Sure,” I lie.
He looks me over, his eyes warm in a way that has my throat tightening again. Then grins, bumping his hip into mine. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I laugh despite myself. “I just got back here! And aren’t you and Maddoc in the middle of something right now?”
I wave a hand toward the papers they were looking at.
“Nah, we were just wrapping up.” Dante holds out his hand. “Come with me.”
I hesitate, glancing over at Maddoc and Logan. They both look up as if they feel my eyes on them, and Maddoc gives me a small smile. Logan doesn’t, but I still feel the way things have shifted between us. Betweenallof us.
I think I was right last night. It’s time to believe in them.
“Okay,” I tell Dante, my stomach getting a little jittery when he grins again and tugs me out of the kitchen. But this time, it’s with anticipation instead of the sick dread I’ve felt all day.
With Dante, we could be going anywhere. Up to his studio, out to breakfast-for-dinner, or hell, all the way across town to run naked through the fountain in the plaza Chloe and I used to get lunch in for all I know. Trusting him is always an adventure… but it suddenly hits me that I do.
I’m not sure when that happened, and it’s definitely not without some reservations, but somehow, it did. I trust him enough to follow him, even now that I don’t have to.
That doesn’t mean I’m not curious, though.
“You’re really not going to tell me where we’re going?” I huff after he drags me out to the Escalade, acting far more annoyed by that fact than I actually am.
He raises one eyebrow. “Why tell you when I can show you?”
I shake my head and roll my eyes, but I’m smiling. He keeps me distracted from my worries on the whole drive, and when he finally stops the Escalade I realize we’re at…
“A tattoo studio? You’re getting more ink?” I ask, unexpected excitement surging through me as I follow him inside.
He laughs. “I’ll be getting more until the day I die.”
I bite my lip. That sounds hot.
Dante nods a greeting to the heavily pierced girl at the front, and she points us toward the back of the building like she’s expecting us. Well, him.
He puts his hand on the small of my back and leads me to a small room that would have looked sterile and cold if it wasn’t for the fact that the walls are all painted black and covered from ceiling to floor in framed art prints.
Wait, no. Not art. Tattoos. Fucking gorgeous ones.
Dante pulls his shirt off and tosses it onto a small rolling cart, then drags me toward the back wall, jerking his chin toward one of the prints. “Look familiar?”
“Oh,” I say, my fingers reaching toward it before I catch myself. It’s a jaguar. Gorgeous work. Bold and bright and fucking beautiful, but I’ve already seen the original. It prowls across Dante’s left shoulder, its tail wrapped around his bicep and its eyes—the same vibrant green as Dante’s are—promising danger. They practically glow, staring out from the solid curve of Dante’s bulky shoulder.
“I found Nico a few years ago. He’s done a lot of these,” Dante says, turning his upper body this way and that to point out the rest of the art that’s laid out around the big cat like a riotous jungle of color.
The whole effect is sexy as hell, and when I look up and catch his eye, I can tell he knows it.
He cups my face, and a warm flush moves through me.
“Tease,” I whisper.
The corners of his eyes crinkle as he smiles at me. “Nah. Never that. I’ll always follow through for you, princess.”
Fuck, that’s a tempting thought.
The door opens behind me, a man’s deep voice calling out a greeting.
